1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to racks for holding articles, and more particularly to an article rack for locating and supporting a plurality of articles during the performance of a surface treating process on the articles with a majority of the surface area of the articles exposed to the action of the process. Even more particularly, a vibrating means is included in combination with a rack locating and supporting device to separate the articles during the treatment.
2. Description of the Prior Art
During a process of manufacturing articles, it is often required that the articles be surface treated in some manner. Such surface treatments typically include cleaning the surface of the articles to remove oil and particles, or the coating of the surface of the articles with a protective or decorative material.
Typically, in a high volume manufacturing operation, the articles to be surface treated are placed in bulk in a bath of cleaning or coating solution. However, this method does not always allow for the proper article surface treatment, particularly of articles having planar surfaces, for the reason that the articles may stick together or lay upon each other in the bath thereby precluding adequate exposure of the interfacing surfaces to the surface treating material.
Any proposed solution to this problem must satisfy a number of criteria. For example, it must be capable of rapid implementation so as not to add any significant time to the manufacturing process. Further, any proposed solution must be relatively inexpensive to make, in the first instance, and require little maintenance to keep in operation.
The present invention recognizes these requirements and provides a solution to the problem which facilitates the rapid separation and surface treatment of articles. The present invention provides a rack device for locating and supporting articles during a surface treatment process being performed on the articles which exposes the surface thereof to be treated, which is simple to use and relatively inexpensive to make and maintain in operation.
More particularly, the present invention provides a rack for holding and separating articles during a treatment process being performed on the articles comprising means for supporting and alternately separating adjacent rows of articles with the articles of one row being in alternating, staggered relationship with the articles of the other row. Preferably the rack is disposed within a tank having a treating solution therein wherein the treating solution or the articles therein are subjected to vibrating means.
Also, the present invention provides a method for treating articles comprising the steps of: placing a plurality of articles to be treated in a tank having a rack for holding and separating articles, said tank having a treating solution therein; vibrating said treating solution or said articles whereby during said vibrating, said articles separate; and, removing said articles from said tank after a preselected period of time.
In the use of the term "row" or "rows" herein, it is understood that a "row" may consist of at least one article and that "rows" may consist of at least one article in each of at least two rows.
In the use of the phrase "surface treatment" herein, it is understood that this includes, but is not limited to, treatment of articles for further processing as well as the treatment of the surfaces of the articles immersed within the treating solution.